A Low-tide Walk

Yesterday the tide was so low around the lagoon-end of the key that, instead of kayaking, we decided to just walk around in the water and see what was afoot.

These pictures are lame because a) my camera was in a plastic bag so I wouldn’t drop it in the salt water, b) it takes me so long to turn it on and open the camera app when it’s in that bag that whatever I want to photograph has already swum away, and c) I do try to look at stuff and appreciate it before I grab a shot.

So please imagine schools of these tiny yellow and black striped fish swimming in tidal pools around our legs. I felt like I was walking in an aquarium with them around.

We also saw sea urchins (stayed away from them), cow fish or box fish (that look like puffer fish), and assorted other small fish darting in front of our shadows as we tried to tiptoe through the water.

The ocean was so shallow during this low tide that we walked out to a tiny key off ours and discovered that it’s well-visited.

Tracy was a little creeped out by the conch shells hanging on display, but I thought they seemed festive. As long as no conch were killed just for this, of course.

In the water we picked up a kazillion conch shells to see if anyone was at home, and most of the time there was a conch in there.

A few had been taken over by crabs though, and this one was irate that we’d picked him up.

I was trying to take a quick video clip of him easing out of his shell to see who was menacing him, but he threatened to jump out entirely and pull some kind of alien move of latching onto Tracy’s face (just kidding, maybe), so I got only a bit of video of Tracy throwing his shell back in the water, then him marching off indignantly.

I’ve got it on instagram as thisporch, if you’d like to see.

Each day here I think, “Hmm, what in the world am I going to do with myself all day long?” And each day something wild happens, like the attack of the giant hermit crab, that makes my day amazing.